Pursued to Eternity

By Riley John

Travel on an odyssey from man's origin to our eternal future. Along the way, read about starving hunters battling a dinosaur, a young Egyptian secretly journaling God's rescue of the Hebrew slaves, students challenging evolutionary indoctrination, and an atheist being pursued by his Creator! Realize the extent of the great unseen battle between Good and Evil swirling around us. Understand how the Creator of the universe desires for each person to receive a precious treasure, the gift of eternal life! Readers' comments: "It got more and more exciting as I kept reading!" "This was a very good book!" "The evidence for the Bible was really good."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781644684757

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Pursued to Eternity

John F. Riley

ISBN 978-1-64468-474-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64468-475-7 (Digital)

Copyright © 2020 John F. Riley

All rights reserved

First Edition

Artwork: Audrey Lane, AplArtistry

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright ©2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below. All rights reserved.

Covenant Books, Inc.

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www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Time, Pursuit, Eternity, and History

The Hunt for a Mighty Beast

Ancient Egypt

Compassion for the Hebrew Slaves

Escape to the Desert

Chaos in the City!

Death in Egypt

Thanksgiving Dinner

Please Don’t Indoctrinate Us!

What’s in the Pit?

The Website

From Biology to Geology

Digging Up History

A 65-Million-Year-Old Man?

The Professor’s Deception

The Drone to Israel

The Pursuit Ends

Introduction

I recounted our travels from the US to Kenya, Egypt, Israel, and back home again.

Note: This is a short novel with fictional events, such as hunting for dinosaurs, living during the Exodus, managing school conflicts, and searching for oil. Also blended into the book are nonfictional challenges to evolution and an extensive survey of apologetics (evidence that supports the Bible).

2020 (in the US)

My brother and I were given a special opportunity to touch ancient history. Although we no longer have the bones, pottery, and diary we worked so hard to find, I can still hold onto one priceless assurance…that my brother is alive and in the eternal, loving care of God. He was pursued by Good and Evil, and he chose Good!

I wish he could have lived long enough to see our story in print. Some incredible pages of history were cracked open, just wide enough for us to peek back at events that had occurred thousands of years earlier. It is an honor that you have chosen to share our journey through the pages of this book.

Dr. Alan Bridges, my younger brother, died about three months ago. He was a geologist who worked worldwide, surveying for oil deposits. The ten years before his death had been very difficult for Alan. After his youngest daughter died, he drifted away from a loving family, allowed alcohol to take control, and became a professing atheist. He frequently quoted one of his favorite authors, Ernest Hemmingway,

I have drunk since I was fifteen and few things have given me more pleasure…all thinking men are atheists.

Alan dismissed the fact that Hemmingway committed suicide.

With his PhD degree, my brother had faith in science, but not in God. He believed that after the big bang, something appeared from nothing. Then, over a period of about 14 billion years, through undirected mutations and natural selection, something became everything.

Evolution gave Alan an explanation for the design that surrounds us. He seemed content in believing that man is just an advanced animal. His faith in science, though, did not help to manage the scourge of alcoholism. Life was a daily struggle.

My name is Connor Bridges. I am a biology teacher, Alan’s older brother, and the author of this book. Alan and I were close, but we had opposing worldviews. He was an atheist, and I am a Christian. As the years went by, I became increasingly concerned about Alan’s drinking and his lack of faith in God. Many people were praying for him, and as our story will explain, God pursued Alan and answered those prayers in a spectacular way!

This book was written to chronicle the amazing six-month odyssey I experienced with my brother. The large check I received from the government of Israel has allowed me to stay at home and invest time writing. Some people, including our families, were a little skeptical when I recounted our travels from the US to Kenya, Egypt, Israel, and back home again. Eventually, though, most everyone came to sincerely believe the events during those few months did actually occur. Our experiences confronted Alan’s atheism and strengthened my Christian faith as promised in the Bible.

We can move closer to God.

Those who seek Me diligently, find Me. (Proverbs 8:17)

Included in this story is some information from the references that are listed below:

Biblical Reference

Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version. The reader is invited to use the verse references for further study of the entire context.

References on Apologetics

TheAnnals of the World by James Ussher

The Archaeological Study Bible, New International Version

The New Defender’s Study Bible, King James Version, commentary by Henry Morris

The Evidence Bible, New King James Version, commentary by Ray Comfort

The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell

The Answers in Genesis website (AnswersInGenesis.org) and the magazine Answers

The Institute for Creation Research website (ICR.org) and the magazine Acts and Facts

The Apologetics: Creation vs Evolution course from the Schoolhouse Teachers website (SchoolhouseTeachers.com)

Dragons… Legends and Lore of Dinosaurs by Bodie Hodge and Laura Welch.

References on Egypt

The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago

Ancient Egypt, Kingdom of the Pharaohs by R. Hamilton

Unwrapping the Pharaohs, How Egyptian Archaeology Confirms the Biblical Timeline by John Ashton and David Down

The Great Mysteries of Archaeology,the Pyramids by M. R. Luberto

Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times by Donald B. Redford

Knowledge for the Afterlife, the Egyptian Amduat, a Quest for Immortality by Theodor Abt and Erik Hornung

The Search for Ancient Egypt by Jean Vercoutter

Egyptology by Emily Sands

Ancient Egypt by Lorna Oakes and Lucia Gahlin.

References are adopted for use in accordance with federal copyright law and the fair use doctrine. Usage does not imply endorsement by the copyright holder.

The references described above are available for the reader to use as a starting point for further study into apologetics and everyday life in Egypt. Specific reference notations are not included to keep the story from becoming too much like a textbook. For easier reading, some of the lengthy discussions I had with Alan are presented as summary lists.

The names of the major fictional characters in the book are listed below:

Alan and Connor Bridges—brothers that were introduced earlier

Haka—Egyptian father and military officer (name means officer)

Hasina—Haka’s wife (name means good)

Aptera—Haka’s son (name means guide)

Salihah—Haka’s daughter (name means pleasant)

Jabare—Salihah’s husband (name means brave)

Netanel—Hebrew teacher (name means God has given)

Chinedu—Kenyan pilot (name means God leads)

Ammon—Professor in Cairo (name means hidden one)

Uri—Jewish diplomat (name means my light)

The book’s storyline will move between four countries with events that span from ancient times to the present. The varied locations and timelines will eventually all come together around the common theme… Pursued to Eternity.

Thank you!

1

Time, Pursuit, Eternity, and History

As he gazed up at the medieval tower clock, Einstein pondered a complicated question.

To better understand our story, listed below are some comments about time, pursuit, eternity, and history.

Time. First, let’s consider some thoughts about time. The ticking of clocks relentlessly records the passing minutes, hours, and days of our lives. Time is displayed everywhere—on the walls of our homes, on our wrists, and on our computer screens. No one can escape walking in lockstep with time on its persistent march. Whether we reside in a mansion or live in a hut, are wealthy or poor, a king or a servant—all of us are gifted with twenty-four hours per day and, perhaps, only eighty years of life.

Time is limited.

We bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty. (Psalm 90:9–10)

Allow your mind to reflect back. Your experiences surely have included joys, sorrows, accomplishments, and failures. These events nurtured either a strong faith in the future or a fear of life’s inevitable end. Some people believe that their very short time on earth is all they will ever experience. The quote, You’re here today and gone tomorrow may be popular with some, but it ignores our future in eternity.

Everyone will reach their final milestone, their last day on earth. It may occur in the next minute, the next year, or decades from now, but it will eventually happen as we are reminded below:

Our lives are like a vapor or a fading flower.

Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town, and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring…you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. (James 4:13–14; Psalm 103:15–16)

Time gives us the opportunity to acquire wisdom.

So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

Wisdom is needed to answer some fundamental questions—Does God exist, or is atheism true? Was the universe created, or is it the result of a series of undirected events started by an explosion? Are humans made in the image of God, or are humans just mutated animals? At death, do we enter eternity or simply cease to exist? Is God’s plan disclosed in the Bible? Is God’s power revealed in what has been created? Are we being influenced by the forces of Good and Evil?

To answer these questions, will we rely on our individual moral compass, the group morality of our friends, or the moral code established by the Creator? Some people will try to avoid these issues entirely by filling their lives with distractions. As Thoreau said, Men lead lives of quiet desperation.

Pursuit. During our time on earth, whether we realize it or not, we are being pursued by the battling, unseen forces of Good and Evil. What does it mean to be pursued by Good? Assume a wealthy, long-lost uncle passed away. After his death, it was discovered that you were left with a